Google is seemingly looking to revamp its Play Store, with a number of changes having been spotted by users. These include category reshuffles, different-sized icons, a new carousel and a couple of other big alterations.
It’s been a while since the Play Store got a big re-design, with the last such refresh taking place last year. Smaller changes also took place earlier this summer when some of the categories were redone, but it now looks like Google wants to refine its store’s design even further.
One of the new changes that’s being trialed, is the replacement of the entire Entertainment category, which seems to be a bit too vague for users. As spotted by Android Police, one of the new versions features the new, more descriptive category title of “Movies, Music, Books”.
Another of the changes seen is a new carousel for featured items in the Store. You’re familiar with these as being the top items every time you open the app. Up until now these featured images that stretched across a large part of the app. Going forward they may be quite a bit smaller, without going behind the app’s UI elements.
Finally, and this perhaps is the biggest change, Google is experimenting with dropping the white search bar that always shows up in the Play Store. Apparently, the company is looking at integrating the search field into the top bar directly, and hiding the voice search function behind a second tap. This does seem to save a tiny bit of space, while also giving the app a more cohesive look, but it might be confusing to users.
As mentioned though, these new features are currently being tested, so there’s no guarantee they’ll all show up in the near future.
Source and Screenshots: Android Police
6 Comments - Add comment